Tag Archives: Water

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

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Terry is leveling the fields.  He will plant only two fields this year.  These two fields with the alfalfa field will be our crops.

Leveling

The Uncompahgre Valley Water Users have cut  the amount from 60% to 50% of your allotment.  (Although, we will still have to pay for the 100% allotted to our farm–as does everyone else who farms.  Doesn’t seem right to me, but that is what it is).

If–-IF — there is more water (which we all doubt) by the end of May, he will plant, possibly, some pinto beans.  We just have to wait and see.

We would like to plant more alfalfa, depending on the water,  maybe we will and maybe we won’t.

I guess, Dear Readers, you are in just as much of a quandary as we are.  As my Mother used to say: “Time will tell.”

And so it shall.

Thank you for all of your magic thoughts and your concern…we are moving forward in faith and hope and with a little luck we will make it to harvest!

Sunset

Linda

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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8:00 this morning saw much warmer temps than yesterday at the same time….

Still cold, but I’ll take it.

The dry, powdery snow is just about gone except in spots on the north side of things.

But we have snow in the high places

This a photo of Grand Mesa at the front of our place

The snow along the Craig Crest Ridge on Grand Mesa.  This part is closer to the Cedaredge, Eckert area.

The snow along Green Mountain and the Ragged’s.  I wasn’t able to get a photo of the Paonia Mountains or the Gunnison Mountains or the San Juan Range because of a haze covering those parts of the mountains surround us.

But the Uncompahgre Plateau was looking good, with a little snow ridge in the higher parts of the Plateau

The canyon, that our mesa tops off, is called the Roubidoux…

No snow there, unless you look way, way, way at the top where you can see a tiny white ridge of snow.

A good start for the potential of water for next year!

Linda

 

 

 

 

 

Water—-The Lifeblood of Life

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We received notice yesterday by the Ditch Company that the irrigation water is to be shut off early this year and (depending on the snow levels over winter) to start later next year.

Although, we have turned our water off, there are those who have planted winter wheat and also those who have just cut their hay and will need to water the alfalfa field one more time before going into winter.

“Due to drought conditions and the heavy usage of stored water this summer, the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association –UVWUA- will be shutting the Gunnison Tunnel off two and a half weeks early this year. The shut-off date will be October 15th. This decision has been made to conserve Taylor Reservoir water for next year. Growers planting winter grains should plan accordingly. Pending the type of winter we have this year, there is a possibility water will be turned on later than normal next spring.  For questions or comments call the UVWUA.”

 

You are looking upon our head gate for the irrigation water to our place.  Our share of this canal (the Ironstone) is taken out at this point.  It goes back in at the end of our farm.

We were watching the Rural Farm News (yes, we do things like that) and the report on there was this drought is the largest drought in years, and years, and years, encompassing most of the United States clear into Canada.

As much as I dislike snow and ice and the dark and cold of winter….I’m sure there isn’t a person out there that doesn’t want a lot of moisture this winter.

Finger crossed and toes crossed for moisture for drought stricken regions everywhere!!!!

Linda

Sunday Stills — Pick Two Previous Challenges

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My first challenge pick was trucks…

I was really lucky.  While we were having Fuzzy’s birthday party at the lake this came by

Delta has never had an ice cream truck until this year.

And for my second challenge, this one

I love the reflection on the water!

Have a nice Sunday, everyone!

Linda

Moving Pipe

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We had to replace two broken sticks of pipe (5 feet long) in one of the fields.

That is the bad thing about the plastic pipe, the sunlight finally gets to them and they start to crack.

They never break at a ‘good time’, nothing ever works that way does it?

So Terry turned the water out and then we pulled apart the sticks, ran them over to the broken pipe pile, ran over to the stash of good pipe and put them back together last evening.  (We waited until it cooled down some since this was rather hot work in and of itself).

A little quail was singing to us at the broken pipe pile—he was up in a tree, which I thought was rather cool.

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Around 8:30 p.m.  we got everything back together and the water back on.

This morning everything is working good!

Happy Wednesday!  We are in the middle of the week!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Dear Diary

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Dear Diary—

I finally have a few minutes to write a few notes to myself!  Boomer and I have been extremely busy this week.

The water is finally starting to work right.  It took a while.  The ground was so hard and dry and the air so full of hot wind and dirt, oh, yes, and the amount of irrigation water so slim, we had to go change water ALL the time.

But everything is coming together now.

Dad goes out and checks the water often, but we only have to CHANGE the water twice a day, which is normal.

That is because the ground FINALLY got wet.  That’s how Dad and Mom talk when they talk about the water…they say: something, something, something now that the ground is Finally wet.

Dad wastes nothing with the water. He sets up a series of dams so nothing is wasted.

The water at the end of the field goes off our farm and back into the canal so then next farm below us gets our water, it goes on like this clear to the Gunnison River.

Pretty cool!

Sometimes Hank goes with us; he likes to check the tubes for mice.

Boomer is off smelling the news somewhere….he reports back what he finds when we all get home.

Me!?

Well, I help the folks out.

I stay right with Mom and make sure the water is the right height in the ditch, (I really like catching the water bubbles, but I don’t tell anyone, they would probably not let me get in the ditch if they knew)

I just jump right in and show them I’m good at irrigating.

Dad has cut baled and hauled hay.  The first customers came last night.

That is always cool…..we like to bark the customers into the yard, and then we like to lead them to the haystack with our barking signals—

Bark, bark, bark…THIS WAY—

COME ON–  We will show you!

Bark, Bark, Bark!!!

Boomer and I do a really good job of getting them to the hay yard.

By the time we get the truck and the trailer there and all backed up and lined up, Dad is ready to load.

We are a gooood TEAM!

Sometimes Hank and his family walk over in the evening.

Boomer is terrified of the goats!

Terrified!

Did I tell you he is terrified!

Boy is he ever!

Hank and I laugh at him.

Boomer doesn’t care…every time he gets around them one of them tries to butt him so he gets real nervous and barks at them.

Hummmmm

Maybe I would be afraid also if they would try to butt me.

But they don’t.

I get that look on my face and I crouch down and slink close to the ground and they stop.

They look at me and I give a warning growl.

They walk off and I go my own way.

Bullies never like courage!

I tell Boomer to do that, but he says he just can’t.

One day going to town, we saw a devil – a dirt devil.

I thought it was pretty cool.

Boomer said he had never seen one!

Well, Diary.  There you have it.  Just another day on the farm!

Like I say…changing water is always the best part!

Fuzzy

P.S.  Oh, yes!  My fur is starting to come back in.  I really like having fur.

P.P. S.S.  Mom says I have to go to the groomer again NEXT WEEK (SHUDDER) But she said I won’t get shaved.

{{{SHUDDER}}}

Corn Planting Time

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One field of corn seed is in the ground.

 

Terry planted Friday and with this hot weather we’ve been having 80+* for the last several days, the corn seed has already past the swelling stage and starting to shoot roots.

Terry will plant the other field of corn today.

Since the first field is already shooting roots he will harrow off the top of the row bed so the little tips of the corn won’t have a hard time coming through and also that will knock some of the weeds down. Usually the corn bed is harrowed about five days after planting.  (This should happen Tuesday sometime-Wednesday at the latest, if it goes too long the corn will be up and will struggle to get through.)

Friday and Saturday we spent getting the gated pipe ready for the other half of the farm and setting the new earth/dirt ditch.  After much thought and heavy pondering…..gated pipe is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE NOW…..We decided to go to earth/dirt in place of some gated pipe that broke.  The ditch is pretty soft right now so will take lots of extra effort on our part until it seals.  Or imprints —  meaning holds water and remembers where the water is supposed to stay….not run off here and there and everywhere.

Of course the gated pipe (two sticks) had to break somewhere in the middle and at the beginning of the pipe.  So we had to ‘adjust’ all the remaining pipe so we could put the earth ditch at the END of the gated pipe.  That meant lots of jerking apart (by hand) and picking up and moving, one on each end, then shoving back together again.

We had a little break and watched our oldest granddaughter play soccer.  Breaks are always nice, they make you appreciate what you’ve accomplished and give you a mini-rest.

The soccer field is in the valley, on the banks of the Gunnison River, and at the doorway of the Adobes.  You can see the ‘dobies in the background.  The ‘dobies give rise to the foothills surrounding Grand Mesa.

(All the locals call those adobe hills, which skirt the base of the mountain ranges in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona, ‘dobies.)

Linda

 

Surprise!

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The canal ran over its bank last night!  This is the road into our house.  The nice part about this road is it is lower than where we live.  My DH told me I can “just go slow, you can still make it to work!” 

Our-Road

After many loads of dirt everything was under control again.  It made for an interesting drive to the highway, at any rate.

In Spite of the Weather the Work Still Goes On

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Best-Swather-Photo

The last field of alfalfa has been cut, and we are waiting for it to dry.  You can see the showers playing around in Olathe in this photo.

(Come on sun, come on out and play!)

We are still irrigating.  We will never NOT be irrigating, right up until harvest.

Watering-Beans

A little sun is peaking through!

Here is what the beans look like right now.  I forgot to get a photo of the corn, but it is about calf high.

Watering-the-pasture

Watering the pasture

Oats-and-Hay

The new seeding of oats and alfalfa is looking good, but needs irrigating.  You can see the big cracks in the ground.  The water will rotate to this spot next.

Grass-Going-to-Seed

Every thing looks lush and wonderful because of the showers, sprinkles and downpours.

Rose-Garden

I shouldn’t complain—it is just hard to get the alfalfa to dry.  Otherwise, I guess I just miss the sun.

On a Fast Plane and Step 7 (By Myself)

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through-the-gate

DH left at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. 

After a day of visiting, and making sure everything is packed (rider truck, pulling a large camp trailer- Dodge Truck pulling a trailer) they left early Sunday morning.  

At the time of this posting they are now drawing close to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

IN THE MEAN TIME

fuzzy-helps

 

 

The last photos I wanted to show you of irrigation are the photos of the head gate.  The magical (scary), roaring, thundering, (frightening)  place where the canal water enters into our farm

 

 

head-gate

 

 

This is the head gate!  And that little slit is the amount of water we water with all year. 

 

head-gate-water

Although, you’ve seen the siphon tube set up, you are now looking at MY siphon tube set up in the 25 acre hay field.  I wanted to show you this because hay is watered with every furrow, while corn is every other row.

This field’s rows are so long it takes three tubes per row to propel the water to the very end.

siphon-tubes-my-set

 

 

And so you know what an imprinted row looks like, you will see that it is sealed over making it easier to get the water down the next time. 

Once the field is cultivated we have to start over getting the rows to seal, yet let water through.  This is a circle= water, cultivate, water until the plants are too tall, then we just hope the seal holds and the water makes it to the end of the furrow.  It usually does, but if we have a horrible drought and the water is cut back sometimes ….

 

 

 imprint

 

 

Fuzzy and I are doing okay.  We had a pipe split, but DH can fix it when he returns.  Until then we will just move the water to another field and water something else.

smiling-dog